Family Trip '14

With Jeff spending so much time in New Mexico the past few months (and especially during the summer), we didn't have a lot of time for our family trip this year. So, we decided we'd meet Jeff in Las Vegas after one of his New Mexico trips and spend a couple of days there. We stayed at the Cancun Resort, which is about 5 miles south of the strip on Las Vegas Blvd. We needed two rooms, so we got a suite, and it was nice!

The best part about the hotel was the awesome pool. It was huge, with a fun waterfall, and four water slides. Carter and McKay, sadly, were too small for the slides (which caused a lot of sadness for them), but the other kids spent a lot of time on them. 

We also braved the heat and spent some time walking down the Strip. We found some interesting characters to take pictures with.

Statue of Liberty made of chocolate

M&M World was crazy busy, but fun to see. I think the green M must be Asian. :)

Jeff was pretty fond of the Jelly Belly Statue of Liberty

We wanted to take the kids to a show, but didn't want to spend a ton of money. We found a perfect show--Laughternoon with Adam London. We got cheap tickets ($10 for the kids and $13 for us) and spent an hour seeing a show. He was a lot of fun, with magic and comedy. 

When we took a picture with him after the show, he asked if we were LDS. He saw my CTR ring. He is also LDS, from Ogden, living in Vegas trying to make it as a comedian. Small world. 

Our suite had its own hot tub on the balcony, but we never even bothered trying to fill it up, though, because we had two huge jacuzzi tubs in our bathrooms. The kids could easily fit in the biggest one.

It was a quick trip, as we had to head home after two nights. 

After a day at home, we drove up toward Strawberry Reservoir for a night of camping. The campsite was full of cows and deer, which made for an early wake up call, but since we were going fishing, it was fine. 

It was the first time our whole family had been fishing together on the boat, and the little boys had a blast. Carter especially loved reeling in a fish and constantly asked when we could go again. 

Fishing started a little slow, but picked up later in the morning. We kept a few of the biggest ones to eat, which we did quickly when we got home

We were planning on staying for two nights, but Damon really wanted to go to Sam's birthday party, so we decided to come home early. Not that I complained too much--sleeping doesn't happen much when you are camping with five kids. Still, memories were made and bonding occurred. That's what family trips are all about.